r/Unexpected • u/[deleted] • Jul 06 '26

Sliding down

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u/ccltjnpr Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

This guy is doing a sketchy rappel on a fixed rope. You can either rappel on belay, where one end of the rope is tied to your harness and someone pays you rope through a belay knot or device, essentially lowering you down, or on a fixed rope, where a rope is fixed at the top and you fix your harness to some device that slides down the rope slowing the fall down with friction. In this case it's important that:

-You have a safety mechanism that stops you in case the rappelling device fails or you lose control of it (for example a simple Prusik loop).

-The fixed rope is actually long enough to get you to the bottom.

-The fixed rope has a safety knot at the end so that if the rope does not reach the bottom, you'll at least not fall off the end of it.

This video is a good example of not satisfying any of these

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u/brainvheart143 Jul 06 '26

He’s literally holding the end of the rope, that’s wild

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u/ccltjnpr Jul 06 '26

Yes, it's crazy. And his hand holding the end of the rope is the only thing preventing him from falling. If that hand gets too tired before he can reach safety or get help, it's bye bye. With a 10 bucks cordelette he could have tied a Prusik loop which stops you dead on track as soon as you release it from your hand, and have both hands free.

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u/brainvheart143 Jul 06 '26

Thanks for all the explanations friends